


Null, zero, means nothing

by Sunlocke



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters: Sun & Moon | Pokemon Sun & Moon Versions
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-19
Updated: 2017-01-19
Packaged: 2018-09-18 11:58:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,062
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9383945
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sunlocke/pseuds/Sunlocke
Summary: The Beast Killers were a project, like anything one crafted together. One should not become invested in such a project. Faba wouldn't want to disappoint his boss, now, would he?





	

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first work posted here. I haven't written anything but formal essays in a long time, so I apologize for any stiffness. I didn't find it worth dividing into chapters. Enjoy.

He had taken precautions, but this wasn’t supposed to have happened. This wasn’t- this wasn’t what he had wanted at all. The scientist leaned over the desk in front of him, hands gripping the edge tightly to try and stop his arms from shaking. Several words ran through his mind, none of which he was going to say out loud. No – _no_ – this was _all wrong_.

He had left his lab assistant in the observation room with the rampaging Type: Full. He couldn’t force his body to move and help - or do anything. The young researcher was weathering attacks behind their Mareanie’s Protect, Shiinotic next to them firing status moves at random just to make the BK model _stop_ , but it wasn’t working, he could see that much.

The other employees were supposed to be starting the RKS implementation in the other two models in the next rooms. If this happened- a crash shook the lab. Serial number 01 before Faba cowered and scrambled back into a corner, claws skittering on the tiles, jaws snapping at the researcher.

Faba saw the slippery dome of Protect pop with a flash of light, scattering across the floor. The beast towered above his assistant and their Pokémon as they stumbled and fell with the tremor, and his eyes were suddenly, irresistibly drawn to the glint of light highlighting the deadly crest of its head. It could kill them. It was going to kill them.

He gasped, flung into action like a stretched rubber band snapped. Faba fumbled for a Pokeball for an excruciating moment, a curse dropping off his lips as he brushed over the release trigger. Slowbro didn’t waste any time throwing up another hasty shield, the chimera’s attack glancing to the side. It misstepped, but was back on the attack instantly, eyes almost aglow with berserk rage. It was rewarded with a faceful of spikes fired off by Mareanie, swinging itself around between the Type: Full and its trainer, as if its tiny body could stop the monster. The distraction was enough for Shiinotic to blanket the room with a thick cloud of Sleep Powder.

His researcher fell back, muscles slack instantly. Pokémon moves were potent on humans. But it worked on the Type: Full model too. Faba didn’t put much stock in gods, in the forms of Pokémon or otherwise, but he could have thanked them. He felt like he could breathe again as the beast sank down, growing sluggish.

The mask created to contain the BK model in this event was at the ready. It was heavy and awkward, but he grabbed it himself and rushed into the room. Alakazam was out in a flash of red light, and he covered his eyes as it blinded the Full for a moment with Dazzling Gleam, the white light searing his eyelids. Sightless and unable to move, it was a simple matter to kneel and slide the helmet over the beast’s head, securing it around the throat and crest. He noticed his hands were still shaking. Sweat was running down his face, even though it was cool in the room. He still felt as if… something awful were going to happen, and he kept a wary eye on the sleeping beast until the opening door caught his attention.

The other employees were bruised and scraped, shuffling nervously as they silently debated who would deliver the bad news he already knew was coming. He counted. Five of them. Everyone… accounted for.

“All three models?”

They didn’t even bother speaking, only choosing to nod. Two went to remove the researcher and their Pokémon from the observational room as Faba retreated, picking up the experiment logs. He had seen the BK systems through every step of development. He had been there, recording everything through planning, designing, collecting materials and creating the framework, watching it fill out and grow, almost like seeing a child grow up. The pen seemed to drag on the paper as he pushed away any thoughts of these emotions, writing with stiff formality.

The experiments had failed. There was nothing more that could be done for the Type… Type: Null models.

 

* * *

 

There was a single figure in his way. Gladion knew that employees kept guard on the upper floors all night, but there shouldn’t have been anybody down here, hovering around the secret labs like they might be up to no good. Of course, Faba was the person to work late, trying to get on Lusamine’s good side… if she had one, or whatever else motivated his existence. The scientist was holding a bag of dog treats.

Faba’s eyes flicked down to the Pokeball gripped too tightly in Gladion’s sweaty hand as the child approached. The words written on the ball were blurry without his usual glasses, but he already knew. Gladion wore a trainer’s bag, papers hastily stuffed into the front pocket, and a grey bedsheet tied around his shoulders like a cloak- choice of dark fabric was limited at the Paradise. It was all far too obvious, and yet he hadn’t seen this coming.

Gladion raised his hand with Type: Null’s Pokeball. His knuckles were turning white from the force of his grip. If this was aggression or fear, Faba didn’t know, and he didn’t particularly care either way. He stepped back.

“Are you thinking of attacking me with that? That won’t work.” The Aether Chief pointed one finger at the Pokeball held aloft. “That Type: Null model is far too unstable to battle without sustaining serious injury. By all means, if you want to leave, just ask me to step aside.” It wasn’t the best time to word his suggestion as a demand, but he couldn’t help it. Faba had trouble speaking plainly at times, and never could just say what he meant.

The child’s gaze flicked down the dimmed corridor past him. “If you go to mother- what?”

Wicke, Gladion could see looking the other way if she had caught him. Faba, on the other hand, never missed a chance to glorify himself- and what honor could be greater than returning to a mother her lost child gone astray? This was… unexpected.

The scientist showed a half smirk, like he always did, and raised his hands. He was still holding the treats. Gladion stared. Were they… for Faba? And the man turned away, almost as if pretending he didn’t even see Gladion standing there, looking lost. “Really…. I raised Type: Null from nothing more than a cluster of genetic material. One would think I’d prefer any alternative to seeing it cryogenically frozen. What a waste that would be. A shame.”

Speaking to children was far too difficult for Faba, as they didn’t follow usual social scripts and often misinterpreted him, but he was sure he could talk to himself, with certain implications Gladion would be able to catch on to. The boy knew he was being let go. He had to entertain the possibility that this was a trick. When called for, Faba could be sneaky, even malicious... but no one else was running to capture him. There was just the scientist standing there, looking worn in this lighting, and small without people around him.

Gladion stepped past him. Faba didn’t even follow with his eyes.

“Unbelievable,” Faba said suddenly, tugging his beard. He still didn’t face Gladion. “It seems my tests on Porygon might just overload the electrical system. Imagine if there were a power outage at this hour... I might need to call all employees from, say, the docks to come help me fix it. What a shame it’ll fry the short-term security footage. Very regrettable.”

That was enough for Gladion to hear. He took off down the hall, heading straight for the private elevator.

“My, how much trouble would I get in if my research walked off?” the Aether Chief mused to himself, turning towards the door of Secret Lab A. “I can’t say I’d be so kind to whoever took it if they showed up again.”

Faba wouldn’t be so willing to show mercy next time. That, also, was clear. Gladion ran. The heavy door of the Secret Lab swung closed, and the lights went off.

 

* * *

 

 

He had lost the fight about the extreme measure of freezing the remaining dysfunctional systems for eternity. There had been no fight. Lusamine made her position clear, and Faba slunk off to do her bidding. Years ago, from behind the anonymity of the masks unranked scientists wore, he had fought her on issues like these, whenever she tried to go behind Professor Mohn's back. But he’d learned better. If one stopped obeying Lusamine, they would be nothing but garbage to her, dirt to scrape from her shoe. If that individual outlived their usefulness, she would toss them away. It was worse when she thought she could still use them. Faba had fallen from her grace more than once back then. The President had an uncanny ability to know just when a person was most vulnerable to suggestion. He would never be respected if he tried to oppose her, and he’d be worthless again, just like before she had rescued him and lifted him from the dirt.

She liked him much better when he complied with her will. She made him feel as if finally, someone understood how much he deserved recognition. She knew how to play him like a fiddle. Even worse, he knew it, and he hated it, yet...

Even so, he refused to allow her to keep the suspended Null models in that _horrid_ trophy room, though she had expressed the desire. He had compiled false, but believable reasons to keep them under monitoring in the Lab. To his surprise, she had agreed without hearing a single one, turning her back to him with no more than that. Perhaps they reminded her too much of Mohn. The professor had, after all, been the first to propose the BK project.

“Then recycle them.”

The words bounced around in his head for a moment, showing through the blank look on his face. He understood those words individually, but failed to imagine how they could be applied to living beings. It didn’t make any sense to him. Recycling was the conversion of waste into useable material, and had nothing to do with animals.

“What?”

Lusamine turned back to face him, expression graced by something like a small pout, hands raised as if in wonder he could be so stupid. Her round green irises were sharp like glass. “That’s what you do to things you can no longer make use of, isn’t it? Those failures you were responsible for are not worthy of my love if they cannot even look pretty for me. Yet I’ve invested far too much in those beasts to let them expire in an ugly, insignificant place such as your lab. I told you to recycle them. I’m confident you can do something worthwhile with those husks. They would suffice as a source of energy while we locate Cosmog, would they not?”

Faba’s head hurt from hearing that. He rubbed his eyes with a thumb and finger under his glasses. They were alive… no, legally dead, but their brains still functioned. If thawed, their hearts forced to pump again, they would spring out sentient and conscious. They were not husks.  Lusamine knew that, and he knew she knew that. Why would she-

He shook his head. Of course the two remaining models couldn’t hope to rival the ability of Cosmog in opening a wormhole to Ultra Space- they had been crafted as the most complete antithesis of Ultra Beasts possible.  If any energy could be extracted from them in this state, he really didn’t know. He oversaw the process of cryogenic suspension, but it wasn’t part of his field, not down to the details Lusamine was asking for.

“Fine.” She turned from him again. “Find something to use them for. I know you think you care about them, but it’s nothing more than an illusion wrought by prolonged exposure… to those things that you thought you’d raised. Didn’t they betray you too?” He was sure he felt her burning glare from behind the thick veil of her hair as she paused and turned her head. “Don’t fail me, Branch Chief.”

It looked like it was time for the well-broken dog to get another kick in the ribs.

 


End file.
